Wednesday 25th November. Today we visit Silanche. The Silanche Bird Sanctuary is an 80 hectare preserve owned and protected by the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation. This site is one of the last remnants of Chocó lowland rainforest in the region. To see many of the specialties found there you would otherwise have to visit forests much further north. The elevation of this sanctuary ranges from 300 to 350 meters above sea level. The Sanctuary holds a small portion of tall mature forest, good sections of tall second-growth, and a few sections with plots of agro-forestry. It is about an hours and a half in the car to the west of Mindo, or three hours from Quito. Let's see what we can find.
| Before we entered the forest section of the Reserve we started picking up birds in more open areas. First up is a Black Striped Sparrow. Sounds common but this is the only time I recall seeing it. Then I managed a much better shot of a Pacific Hornero. This is a common bird but quite handsome and it makes a good shot here on a fencepost. Then we struck it lucky with the first of three Cuckoos we were to see today. |  Black Striped Sparrow |
Pacific Hornero
The Little Cuckoo is the least common of the three. It is only Little in the sense that it is smaller than the more common Squirrel Cuckoo which it resembles in other respects. Not only were we lucky to see this one but it was perched in the open and did not take fright and fly off, allowing me to take some good pictures. This is quite unusual for a normally very shy species.
Little Cuckoo
| Here is a Squirrel Cuckoo. See the resemblance? but this one has a much longer tail. It is 45 cms long as opposed to 28 for the Little Cuckoo. I wondered where the name came from until I saw it move through the branches, then it is obvious. It runs along and leaps from branch to branch like a squirrel. It normally flies only short distances, mainly gliding with an occasional flap. So it looks and moves just like a squirrel, using that tail for balance and stability. The Striped Cuckoo here is quite different and is in a separate genus. It is one of very few brood parasitic cuckoos of the Americas, liking Spinetails or Wrens that build dome shaped nests in which it lays a single white egg. Although it is quite a common bird it is again normally timid and skulks in the undergrowth, so I was lucky to catch one in the open singing on a wire. |  Squirrel Cuckoo  Striped Cuckoo |
Next was another Hummingbird, I think it is a Green Thorntail but it looks nothing like the illustration in the fieldguide. My friend Mike Martin pointed out that Hummers look entirely different depending upon the aspect and how the light catches them, because they are iridescent and change color with the angle of reflection.
Green Thorntail Hummingbird
Once in the forest we started picking up some really interesting species. The male White-Bearded Manakin (below) is well known for performing a fascinating breeding display at a communal lek. Each male clears a patch of forest floor to bare earth, and perches on a bare stick. The display consists of rapid leaps between sticks and the ground, accompanied by a loud wing snap, the whirring of the wings, and a chee-poo call. Groups of up to 70 birds may perform together. I would love to see it. They are so named because the males can puff out the throat feathers like a beard.
White Bearded Manikin Soon after the manikin we came across an Orange Fronted Barbet attending its nest site. Apparently they not uncommon here in this forest, but as forest disappears the species is threatened as it is only found in Western Ecuador and extreme SW Columbia.
Orange Fronted Barbet
Barbets nest in holes that they chisel out of dead trees. They are powerful and usually quite colourful birds.
Orange Fronted Barbet at nest
The Barbet may be nice, but it's not as big or colorful as a Motmot. This is a Broad Billed Motmot, one of the smallest of the family. It's fond of eating fiercely stinging insects which is fine by me. Not globally threatened but in serious decline in West Ecuador due of course to habitat loss. We had excellent views of this one in this brilliant little forest reserve.
Broad Billed Motmot
After the Motmot something completely different, another Hummingbird but not on a feeder. This one is possibly a Violet Bellied Hummingbird but I'm not sure. Gabriel is consulting with friends on this one.
Violet Bellied Hummingbird?
Here is another shot of the same bird, taken in the forest just seconds later which illustrates the point I made earlier about the difference aspect and light reflection makes, is its head purple or turquoise? the answer is it can be either.
Purple Fronted Coronet
The Purple Headed Fruit Crow is what it says on the tin. A crow with a purple throat which likes to eat fruit, simple!
Purple Throated Fruit Crow
More Toucans
Yes, Toucans again. This time Chestnut Mandibled Toucans which are a subspecies - (swainsonii) - of the Black Mandibled Toucan. Difficult to tell apart but the bill coloration is definitely a deep chestnut brown as opposed to black.
Yes, Toucans again. This time Chestnut Mandibled Toucans which are a subspecies - (swainsonii) - of the Black Mandibled Toucan. Difficult to tell apart but the bill coloration is definitely a deep chestnut brown as opposed to black.
Chestnut Mandibled Toucan
Chestnut Mandibled Toucan
Back to less ostentatious birds. The Streaked Flycatcher below brought us down to earth from the extravaganza of exotic species. It was something of a relief to see more of a "Normal" bird for a change.
Streaked Flycatcher
Pale Mandibled Aracari The little blip of "normality" didn't last long. There were those Aracaris again. I have got to the bottom of the confusion between Collared and Pale Mandibled Aracari species. I discovered on the internet that the Pale Mandibled (pteroglossus erythropigious) is sometimes listed as a subspecies of the Collared Aracari (pteroglossus torquatus). The main differences being bill and chest spot coloration. I believe that as the Pale Mandibled predominates here it is the only one of the two listed in my bird list.
These birds clearly have the pale lower mandible and I am just counting the one species on my trip list.
These birds clearly have the pale lower mandible and I am just counting the one species on my trip list.
Pale Mandibled Aracari
As we came out of the forest into more open areas things began to get back to "Normal". A pair of Masked Water Tyrants were strutting their stuff on an overhead wire, why? I have no idea but it was funny to watch. Pompous little so-and-so's.
Masked Water Tyrants
| The Buff Throated Saltator is described as common around the forest edge. Well there it was at the forest edge, right enough. Good, a normal bird, it's almost a relief. The return to normality continued with a couple of Seedeaters. The Yellow Bellied Seedeater below is so called because of a hint of lemon yellow on its underparts. I don't think it refers to its cowardly nature. The other Seedeater in the long grass is a Variable Seedeater. As if to prove a point it is tucking in to a seed in my photo, good bird. |  Buff Throated saltator |
Yellow Bellied Seedeater
Variable Seedeater
Then the more exotic birds started to show again, at least a Hook Billed Kite is exotic to me. This species can have very wide variations in color and plumage pattern, but there's no mistaking that profile, a bill designed for hooking out snails from their shells is distinctive.
Hook Billed Kite
There are other Kites with similar hooked bills, in particular the Snail Kite, but it's quite different in color. I believe this is the female of the species which is every bit as good looking as the male, if not better.
Hook Billed Kite
By now it was getting late and the light was fading so we started to make our way home. However there are always birds to see along the way. This Band Tailed Pigeon sat up nicely to be photographed from the car.
Band Tailed Pigeon
and at another stop we picked up this nice Streak Headed Woodcreeper. A good bird to finish the day with.
Streak Headed Woodcreeper
However, once we got home there was a not-so-little surprise awaiting. They had a visitor at the Lodge, an earthworm. But not any old earthworm, a sodding great big one, it must have been a meter long. The Giant Earthworm! I saw a BBC documentary of a monster leech swallowing one of these giants whole, unpleasant to say the least. I'm glad there were no leeches to contend with in Ecuador.
 Gabriel and the Worm |  Giant Earthworm |
